In his 2009 TED talk Burtynsky refers to what has apparently become the new liberal mantra, that peak oil is coming. Every time I hear about peak oil, I am reminded of a talk I attended in 1996 by James W. Kinnear, the former CEO of Texaco, where he said "you've probably heard the world only has a 30 year reserve of oil. We've always had a 30 year reserve. We've had a 30 year reserve for the last 30 years."